 Hey, it's time for voiceover body shop tech talk number 78 You mean there's still new tech to talk about Dan. It's like it never ends Always something new here on voiceover body shop and we got lots of cool stuff to talk about tonight If you've got a question for us about voiceover technology, you know, something that's way over your head or way under your head If if there's something you want to know about technology about how to record properly All the things that go into trying to record your audio throw your question in the chat room We will be thrilled thrilled to ask to answer your question and Get you the right answer. So that's really important. So go into the chat room and go do that Anyway, we're gonna talk. We've got an interview tonight Or at least a teaser of an interview a good eight minutes of the interview. It's a very long interview Yeah, but but it's about a studio. It's a studio log You're gonna learn about what went in designing and building a very pretty high impressive home studio I just like it cuz he has a bathroom anyway All that and more on voiceover body shop coming up right now. It's time for tech talk From the outer reaches they came Bearing the knowledge of what it takes to properly record your voice over audio and Together from the center of the VO universe. They bring it to you now George Wittem the engineer to the VO stars of Virginia Tech grad with the skills to build set up and maintain The professional video studios of the biggest names in VO today and you Dan Leonard the voiceover home studio master professional voice talent with the knowledge and experience to help you create a professional sounding home VO studio and Each week they allow you into their world making the complex simple Debunking the myths of what it takes to create great sounding audio Answering your questions showing you the latest and greatest in VO tech and having a dandy time doing it Welcome to voiceover body shop tech talk voiceover body shop tech talk is brought to you by voiceover essentials calm home of Harlan Hogan signature products Source elements remote studio connections for everyone voice actor websites calm where your VO website isn't a pain in the butt VO heroes calm become a hero to your clients with a word winning voiceover training J. Michael Collins demos when Quality matters and voiceover extra your daily resource for VO success And now live to drive from their super secret clubhouse and studio in Sherman Oaks, California Here are the guys Well, hello there. I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Wittem and this is voiceover body shop or VO Be as tech talk tech talk tech talk So now I got to put Holman's thing on this. Yeah, so I'll slide it into your thank you Well, we're here to talk about home voiceover studios, and you know, I was thinking about this the other day George that you know, there's a lot of people trying to get into voiceover and And we talked to them every day now more than ever more more than ever, you know Last week we were talking about audio drama. Now. We're gonna have all these people wanting to get into audio drama and People don't understand The basic the simple little basic stuff that allows us to be voice actors online And that's the ability to record properly. It's not as hard as it seems But people tend to think that I've got to get the most expensive microphone. I've got to get the most expensive booth I've got to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to make myself Sound great Well, we'll tell you the idea is not to make you sound great It's to make you sound like you and nothing else because you know, the most important thing is that if Everybody keeps talking about broadcast quality and what is broadcast quality? Well, it doesn't mean anything anymore It simply means that your audio doesn't sound bad means your audio is good enough to get hired, right? Exactly, you know, and if nobody's complaining it's broadcast quality, right, you know Essentially, you know, there's the idea that there's your voice and then there's everything else you want to eliminate the everything else Which is you know outside noise reflection of your voice The sound of your computer fan all those sorts of things you can get rid of that But It's more important that you physically set up your environment, right? And you know how to use your equipment And another point, you know, you don't buy great equipment to get work you work to get great equipment and Once you have any equipment if you need to know how to use it. There's only a couple places you can go I mean, some people can tell you that it's like, okay Well, you know, you could use this great mic or you could use this, you know channel strip and you know Everybody's an expert in one studio their own George and I have literally been doing this a come over 30 years combined. We've seen Everything, you know, at least we think we've I mean at least we think we've seen everything until we see something new When they start saying we need to use record voice actors with a five channel microphone array We'll know things are changing. Yeah Yeah, and I'm sure it's done somewhere for some Disney film or something But yeah, if you want real proper instruction on how to do it, right? You got to talk to the guys that actually know it inside out backwards upside down in sideways And that would be mr. Woodham and myself and we don't say it because we're egotistical we say it because this is what we do and We know what it's supposed to sound like the acronym whistle What it's supposed supposed to sound like like right So if you would like to work with mr. Woodham who has an extensive website and lots of videos and lots of stuff Where would they go? They would go over to George the tech And if you're booking a service Use my coupon code VOBS fan 2020 for 20% off that will get you discount on anything that's 22 2022 thank you. I've ruined a couple of checks already. I appreciate 2022 and you get 20% off and that is gonna work for webinars anything that's scheduled webinars support sessions things like that, but that's all over at George the tech and all of our services are there and Yes, it's a bit of a mess. It's a very wordy website Just take your time look through the menu and if you go I my eyes are rolling. There's too many Don't worry too many options. Just contact us and we'll steer you in the right direction for what service that you might need So don't freak out. Okay, but if you have a different idea about tech support, maybe you want to try my buddy That's the him over there Dan. Oh, yeah over at home voice over studio.com And you know, I love working with people who like to ask lots of questions Because I ask even more It's to me. It's very very important You know just being a voice actor itself is pretty difficult because you got to be a good voice actor And then you have to learn how to record properly and all those sorts of things But mostly I ask how does this affect your lifestyle? How can we create a space that is not going to interfere with the rest of your life? Because it is going to be your private space to go do what you need to do to be a voice actor And so I ask a lot of questions like that Where is the best place to record in your home or your apartment or your backyard? I've done it I've done it. So it can be done back there All you have to do is contact me if you have a studio set up And you want a consultation on how to use it better First I need to hear what it sounds like and I have my Specimen collection cup over at home voice over studio.com if you scroll to the bottom of the page It'll soon be at the top of the page. We're almost ready to go live with that But you click on that. It's a drop box and for $25 I will be happy to do a very thorough analysis of your audio if there are shortcomings to it if there are problems I will explain them If it sounds great, I'm gonna say sounds great You know, but of course you can you can always ask follow-up questions on that as well, which is it's really important So go on over to home voice over studio.com and contact me there Okay, it's time for you know and in in progress George's tech update for this I'm always finding more. I'm like, oh, I should talk about that. I don't forget that But but first we had we had a little we had we actually did a package this afternoon We did on location No, less we got to a head over to a client of mine Ben Pronsky who runs the voice Correct me if I say voice actors network actors network as a voice actor of his own, right? who designed with I helped design a A studio into his garage, but it has some particular Issues that we had to sort out so we shot a very long video a long interview I cut together a short version of it to show you guys right now And if you want to see the full thing later, it's gonna be on my website And it will link it on to the Facebook and for for VOBS So you don't miss the the long cut. But anyway, so let's check out that little package Should be sitting there ready to go for VOBS. I am at a client studio that I've worked with for Couple of years now to get the perfect home studio situation built and Perhaps a less than perfect location and maybe in a minute, you'll see what I mean So you see there's a bit of a problem with this location They're a lot louder But it doesn't matter now right then not at all not at all It's a beautiful thing. That's nothing the freight airliner to the worst like the FedEx and FedEx and yeah FedEx and UPS 730 every day. Yeah, right right after jeopardy. I have Southwest schedule memorized It's a two-car garage, right? Just a standard two-car garage Come on in let's take a look It's really comfy in here This is an AGU in the booth doing what he does Can you hear me? How about I give you some venom? Peter Parker, I will destroy you Peter These doors were custom made for the space overseas Yeah, in Indonesia in Indonesia. Yeah, so only the finest teak Look at that. Look at that air gap. That's freaking crazy Wow, that's a one and a half inch gap all the way around and that was the big thing is You know what we learned Was the level of low and frequency that we were dealing with we had to truly decouple and oh, yeah So this is this is a completely decouple construction. It's channel strips and all that technically only coupling would be this piece Concrete right here, right? This is it's it's not a cut slab, but just some studios Concrete doesn't really carry sound sound. It's really low low low low stuff So and then all of this is hardwired except for my Bluetooth mouse So it's all connected directly to ethernet on the outside of the of the booth Yeah, hardwired is a way to go. Yeah It's and this size triad orbit was perfect for it because this the booth is only five by six I've been doing some podcast recording people are using the space to do podcast in here and it's comfortable with two tall chairs and yeah I've got the the 4073 directional here, and I've got the TLM 103. So Everything was custom-made obviously to fit in the space right table was cut everything was drawn and yeah measured and agonized over every square inch of Yeah, agonized over the big thing is that instead of just going with standard like 24 by panels Your recommendation George was to just just cover the walls with panels and like this one for example There's just one large panel with Ronald installation, you know and You know and then the other big thing obviously is that we have an ERV system in the closet outside That's pumping fresh air from outside into this space So we have the central air and in addition we have the ERV that's pumping fresh air in which is that's a big deal Not everybody watching most of studios don't do that Yeah, and not especially like a quote-unquote home studio. This is definitely like this is beyond the home studio This is definitely next level. Well, I mean you can sit in here. We're comfortably for hours. I do I do. I mean the majority of my work is group ADR where you're doing a movie for eight hours You know, so you're literally sitting in the booth for you know hours on end But the you know the big difference was it wasn't just for personal use because of voice actors network I wanted to be able to host like a workout group or a class here and that was sort of the original purpose But then when the pandemic hit it was like, oh Yeah, so we got four inches four inches here Yeah, is it four inches on this? This is actually three three and a half. This is six. Oh, we got six on the ceiling I said six. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's all rock wall or all rock wall Yeah, is that wall so three three and a half? Is that the same as this? Yeah, all these are three and a half on the walls and the ceiling cloud is is the the six inch Very nice. I'll tell you what come in here and close both these doors That door don't think I've been ever in this quiet all we can hear is our Tintedness Yeah, it's really loud in here as a matter of fact. Yeah. Yeah Are you gonna play some did you just did you just watch me talking to the headphones? Did everybody see that? I have it on this one. I make sure I Don't know if you're hearing us play some play some music so we can hear if there's any bleed Okay, he is I think he's blasting some Star Wars right now Yeah, it's I know it's blasting I can tell I'm looking at the view meter on the Apollo and it is cranked. It is Great, wow That is good man So we were talking a little bit earlier. How long ago did the project start in earnest where you're like, okay? I got a team we're ready to go. I paid a deposit. How long ago was that? We broke ground in October of 20 We filed for the permits in November 19 and it took almost a year to get the permits from the city of Burbank Now it's better than the city of Los Angeles. Yeah, right, right But then obviously when the pandemic hit it slowed everything down as far as the processing time and then we started to run into stuff with the contractor where supplies weren't available or You know a lot of that stuff started to rear its ugly head But yeah, October of 20 is when we actually started the construction and got things underway So and we were bare bones. So yeah It wasn't breaking ground. It was sledge hammering and sledge hammering There was trenching because we had all the utilities because of what it's not just a the studio where it's a ADU alternate dwelling unit and through the city if you're gonna have gas water Electric, they had to do the trenching we had to get you know the approval process along that way So the the studio the booth was kind of a separate entity So so ADU is a new thing that didn't start much longer before you I mean it was pretty new before you Chose to go the ADU route, right? Yeah, which is all about a certain type of Permitting I guess to allow you to have more Residential square feet on your lot than normally permitted so that we can get more housing in Los Angeles Yeah, that was it is because of the housing crisis They started to sort of expedite the process of permitting so that you know There's more mother-in-laws living in the back house. I guess Instead of in the house with you which is you know in Florida Yeah Alright, yeah, so that that was the the little package we cut today It's it goes on for a lot longer than that if you really want to know kind of the the nitty gritty of what went into Designing and building the space Check out the video. We'll get the I'll get a final cut of that in the next couple of days It'll go up on the my YouTube channel and we'll have it up on the VOBS Socials so you can't miss it, but anyway that was that was fun And I was glad Dan could join in it was that made it even more fun. It was you know, and we got to have lunch, too But that's yeah besides the point But yeah, it was nice of Ben though to invite us in there The thing is is there's so many details that went into it and and the idea is is you don't build this to get work your work to get something like that and he's been very successful and And making a living doing voiceover so it was essential But you don't build something like that because you want to do it you build it because you're doing yeah later He mentioned he's been in the business on some level in 17 18 years, but as a full-time voice actor About eight years. Yeah, so there you have it. They have it. I'm in other news I don't have a ton of news But a couple couple things the Apple Macs studio computer that I was obsessing about when it came out And then I realized after reading reviews talking to people that you know in Facebook like I have a Facebook group called Mac and iOS for VO I posted about it there saying hey, how's it going? Can you hear the fan because I saw some youtuber probably trying to get clicks posting audio of the noisy fan, right and the bottom line was that anybody that's gonna be using it for anything that we in our World are gonna is gonna do will make the keep the fans running at such a low speed You will have no clue they're even on like that's what everybody is saying the fans are essentially silent if you are doing heavy heavy-duty Really heavy-duty video production or rendering of photo photogrammetry heavy-duty stuff Maybe then the fans might be audible, but my my contact said yeah, we were trying and we were doing some 4k You know uncompressed video editing and we thought we were gonna make it break a sweat Not not even close. It's a seriously seriously powerful computer I still contend that any of you who watch the show were into voiceover and really just want your next studio computer The Mac mini M1 is with and I would get the 16 gigs of RAM the memory upgrade Which you have to wait a little while to get that it's absolutely worth Waiting for that extra extra bit of memory. It does help. You're gonna be very happy mine and Dan as well Have we've just had excellent experiences Very quiet computers drama free So anyway, if you get the studio, it's bragging rights, right? And if you wait until June or I think it's that's the next of worldwide developers conference And you buy that whatever the next Mac Pro is well touch you And it takes up a little bit more space than a than a Mac. Yeah, it's like a double stack triple stack Oreo version of the Mac mini Right same exact footprint Other things universal audio has realized that there's a bigger market out there for people that don't want to buy the hardware And just want to use any old audio interface So they finally decided that they'll license their plugins without their hardware and it's called spark Who is this for? most but not most of you not really so but if you do if you're already bought into the Apollo sphere a universal audio UAD plug-in world an API vision channel strip or Different plugins that you rely on yours for your sound as part of your life Then maybe you went spark so that you can take your say your mic port pro on the road a little tiny mic port pro instead of a big old Apollo and Still have the same plug-in chain with you, okay? That's who it's for it's really not that big a deal But it's kind of the thing that's created a little bit of a buzz in the universal audio Users groups, so I thought you guys should know about it another plug-in news and the last thing is We did an interview on the pro audio suite podcast from a company called GPU audio and their website is GPU audio and This is the geekiest of the geeky stuff, right? So this is creating platforms for recording and processing audio that do all the processing on the GPU not the CPU the CPU is what's always done that work on all of our computers But there's all these extra parts on the computer whose job is typically for graphics So these guys are saying what about taking advantage all that hardware and putting it to use for audio So it's very bleeding edge It's really in right now. It's really a PC platform thing But what they're saying is you could have a PC in your studio. That's like a server That's where all the processing happens and it could be plugged into your computer over a network And you can send audio into it and it does it incredibly low latency like real time And you can do incredibly heavy-duty work So this is really bleeding edge I thought I would bring it up because we talked about it on the podcast and it was just Really interesting to hear about but any but any of you that's it's you know, as fancy as tickled By the bleeding edge extremely geeky stuff. Go check out GPU Dot audio one of the things I see them being able to do eventually is you could have an audio interface Like one of these and hit a button and the noise floor goes away like just goes away Non-issue the processing is happening all inside a GPU chip and that it's no latency And it's like the magic button. That's what's gonna be happening. I think you know We're gonna see on the horizon and it's gonna it's clearly gonna allow you to record voiceover or any audio Really almost anywhere. So it's gonna be interesting. Yeah. Well, it was interesting being over at Ben's place Yeah, one because man those planes are allowed to go over there Why why anyone would put you know, we live there because why because they got the house for a great price It's a great. It's a bargain of a place and hey, I don't own a house. Hey You know, I I'm still rented. So it's pretty odd I mean, I thought he was crazy to believe me every zoom meeting we'd have and we'd be talking He'd be sitting in that empty garage, you know, and we we were interrupted every few minutes. Yeah Yeah, no, it came out. Okay. Yeah, and I was I was pretty impressed people just need to understand that one quick comment the difference between How many times I've said this between sound proofing and Acoustical treatment they are two different physical things The next person that says I'm gonna get some soundproof foam. I am going to I'm going to be nice to them But I may use that soundproof foam to keep them from saying anything You know, we'll just put that in your mind the way you will it The stuff does not keep sound out Soundproofing is what Ben did in that place, which was Really expensive, but it was worth it because of where he was and the amount of work that he does and it's right I mean, it would cost him a lot more money to move that house or House of the equivalent of square footage the amount of space in the garage and pick a quiet neighborhood further from there It would have cost a hell of a lot more than probably he's spent to build it Yeah, so in the end he might have been winning. Yeah, one thing's for sure. He's never moving He's gonna be there for a while Anyway, if you got a question for us on your home voiceover studio or just something in general about that Throat in the chat room and Jeff home will get that to us and we will answer your questions Right after this break where you can hear from our wonderful sponsors here on voiceover body shop. So don't go away We'll be right back You're still watching VOBS and now a word from Harlan Hogan and voiceover essentials comm Has this ever happened to you? Embarrassing the washers on these booms and they're not so great at holding up your expensive microphone And here's the answer the adjustable boom stop is great easy to attach and works like a charm No more droopy mic. It's simple ingenious and infinitely adjustable The padded non-slip pouch fits almost any size boom arm unique double-loop webbing system for unlimited angle of the downstrap Works with tripod and solid round bases light gray webbing lets you mark and repeat stand settings for each performer It's three ounces of protection for your expensive microphone with free standard shipping in the continental us Hold up your mic with the ABS adjustable boom stop It's that time of the show where we thank our lovely wonderful amazing sponsors source elements the creators of source connect and a growing suite of Audio production tools that allow producers to work remotely from their clients and their talent all over the world And you'll hear so many new technologies coming out right now that work on web browsers and have these you know clever cute names I'm telling you Those are all great, and they're used all the time for producing podcasts and stuff but the jobs that actually are likely gonna be paying you the big money are Generally using things like and specifically Source connect because it is a tool that allows the production to flow and run the way They are accustomed to the audio flows from your mic over the internet Straight into the timeline of Pro Tools and the engineer gets to work at it do takes They get to pipe in direction from the from the director Have the client listen in make an edit get approval It all happens real time and that's why source connect is part of a lot of the biggest and best-paying Productions so if you feel like you're ready to be playing at that level and you're seeing that word source connect pop up more and more Often on scripts It's time head over to source dash elements calm and get yourself a 15-day free trial And if you need help getting it set up George the dot tech slash SC where I've got tutorials tips instructions and services to get you up and running more easily Anyway, thanks for listening. Let's get to those tech questions right after this Well, hello there. I bet you weren't expecting to hear some big-voiced announcer guy on your new orientation training for snapchat Weren't you this is virgin radio? Well, okay? We're not that innocent There's jeans for wearing and there's jeans for working Dickies cuz I ain't here to look pretty. She's a champion of progressive values a leader for California and a voice for America It's smart. It's a phone. It's a smart phone, but it's so much more It's a the files are ready. Don't forget to pick up the eggs. What time is hockey practice? Check out this song It's the end of the road for rent When hope is lost the I8 from BMW Who said saving the planet couldn't be stylish? Hey, it's J. Michael Collins bet you think I'm gonna try and sell you a demo now I think they speak for themselves, but I will give you my email. It's J. Michael at JMC voiceover.com Now if they will stop waxing this mustache for a minute, we'll get back to the show And we're back here on voiceover great job on that spot. I yeah, I Look over so I want that I want that do that. It's great right in the house Yeah, it's nice to have your own in-house production staff here. You know do those sorts of things Anyway, again, if you've got a question about your home voiceover studio, you know acoustics equipment How to use the stuff you've got or how not to use it or are you buy more? Yeah, should you buy more? You know, there's I mean we talk about that. Yeah, you could buy this you could buy that You know, my opinion is always like what's the best microphone for voiceover? Probably the one you got unless you got something it really sucks. It's some 70 Yeah Anyway, not that we don't have these microphones, but we use them to just demonstrate how bad they are for voices Somebody sent me a clip. She's like, can you master this for a voice for an audio book? I said I can I can I know you're the audio It's done. I'll make it work, but man It's so noisy and like let me guess she didn't even tell me what the interface was it was an SM7B She didn't mention the interface and I said I can tell you're using a scarlet and she wrote me back She was using a scarlet. They said it 12 o'clock, you know It was just like the noise level wasn't the hiss was insane. So please please use the right care everybody Yeah, don't use those dynamics. Anyways, if you got a question throw it in the chat room right the second and George and I will answer that question. We promise if you're watching live if you're not watching live You missed your opportunity Anyway, let's start off with Mike max Goldberg Go He says I realized there's a bit of ambiguity regarding the focus right interfaces But just wondering is there a noticeable difference between the first generation and the third generation the current Scarlet interfaces great though. Thanks. Great show. Thanks for doing what you do guys. Thanks. Well, we appreciate that You know the scarlets have been around forever. Is that which one are you holding up? This is a first gen? That's a first. I think it's a first gen. It might be it might be a second Let's see. I think that's a first gen You know the difference the only way I can tell the difference is that is the knob knurled or smooth It is the big knob. The big knob is smooth. So it's a first gen. This is a first gen So so when you took that as service Dan, did you find it to be a poorly performing unit that didn't sound good? No, because this is the unit we used for audio on the show for a good long time Yeah, we did actually And so if you plugged it in today, it would still work function roots for a function fine Yeah, so I think there's actually things I prefer about the first gen like I like that It has actual physical switches that when you turn them on stay in that position Right, you know the new one has a fan and power push button that you have to push and engage And if you forget it will be off Yes, there is a fix for that. A lot of people don't know if you install the drivers for Mac There is a console Thing that you can open and permanently set the fan and power on so that is possible but still Software buttons instead of physical switches. Okay, so I like that when you turn something on it stays on permanently So I like that about the older scarlet But the new scarlet is gonna have better hide the headphone level output a little bit more gain Is that's about it, right? Well, I mean, let's it's got the it's got the new one's got the air button the air but which is almost never No one seems to be of help. It's it's a loop back essentially So you can play stuff off of your computer back out towards the one I'm thinking of is the air button It's like a tone button when you press it. It makes it brighter sounding really that's another thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but it's Nobody needs that nobody It's got a monitor button on it to turn monitoring on off the old one has a switch I I have not, you know seen a really solid shootout like saying a B compare them But if you've already got a first gen and it's still working without a hitch without a glitch Day in day out and you have no complaints about the noise sound quality or anything else I Seriously doubt you're gonna find an advantage to use the new one if you're gonna buy something new go upstream go to You know the next kind of level I like the SSL to mm-hmm. I think that's a nice up step from this one Yeah, a lot of people are using that. What do you think is a good level up from the scarlet series? I was gonna say the SSL to I have not tried it myself. I mean, I mean we did that I have one now I should I'll bring it next time. I would like I would like to try that You know, we did the shoot out a couple years ago and we replayed it once and To me it was like as long as it's over a hundred and twenty dollars It's probably okay. There are ones that really suck The real low-end barringers now barringer makes great stuff for live audience some good stuff But they're this low and for you stuff is a little Yeah, it's really noisy and so, you know if you stick with the good stuff the Yamaha You're the AG3 or the AG the AG03 or a Steinberg which is their same thing. Yeah, right? And you know and then there's the mic port pro which our good friend Debbie Dairyberry just dropped off here and I stood It's in this box right here. Yeah and You know that one works great and she loved it because it had a limiter and because she does animation She has to yell at certain times and as long as you have a limiter It's a safety net. It worked and it worked really well for her. So it's a safety now. So she bought one Yeah, so I appreciate you lending that to me so I could lend it to her so she could decide to buy one Are you paying attention Mike Goodman? We have an opening for a sponsor on the show Fit right in here. Um, anyway Anyway, yeah, so yeah, we like the ones we definitely are gonna recommend the ones that have the least complex drivers Don't have a lot of console software blah blah blah plug it in and set the gain and do those are that you'll be the things You're gonna mainly hear us recommend. So absolutely. Yeah Alright BC has a question George You mentioned echo cell versus other absorption products requiring gloves Does Orlex foam require gloves or is it just my hands that get itchy handling it? I You know, I I've never gotten itchy handling it depends on what you've been Leaning your audio are orelex and I mean if you're talking about actual orelex brand foam I'd seriously doubt. I mean if you get itch if if your hands get itchy then you definitely have some kind of a possible Allergy allergy reaction to something in that. I yeah, I've never seen that happen really. Yeah It happens with fiberglass and rock wool definitely you know You do not want to handle rock wool or fiberglass or any of that spun mineral stuff without gloves I wear I wear my flight suit with gloves and taped on Yeah, and a mask when I work with that stuff. Yeah. Yeah, you definitely do not if you use any of that stuff seal it up really well if you're using The cotton based stuff you're home free that stuff has zero Toxins and you can you can sleep on it. I mean it's or sleep in it But it's made out of glass or minerals you do not want to really handle it very much so Eco cell is it's just another eco. It's a new eco-friendly version of like a like a It's fiberglass. I don't think it necessarily means you don't want to wear gloves Always always follow the ins you know the guidelines of the manufacturer if they say gloves and mask and matte and goggles then Definitely do that. Yeah, then he asks are there air quality issues with orelex and other products other health issues to be aware of Thanks. Well, yeah, I mean now we've dealt with off-gassing say with moving blankets sometimes and That seems to be an issue But some yeah, some of them have like, you know, they're made out of very synthetic product, you know that has Floor carbons or some kind of you know synthetics and it can be stinky. Yeah, you know some of the blankets So keep that in mind. I always when I'm reading reviews of them. I'm reading people's comments saying it's smelly Yeah, or stinky. Yeah, you can air them out. You can wash them in the washing machine Actually, believe it or not take your move take your freshly purchased blankets rich I'm giving rich green credit for this one. Take them to the laundromat. Put them in that huge Heavy be washer and wash them. I don't know if I would do that with a acoustical phone Yeah, I think that'd be good. I don't think it would hold up to that. No, but but um, the The the best quality products are very low VOC or no VOC, which is the volatile organic compounds And you're gonna have very little issues with almost any of the modern Products coming out and the stuff that's made with cotton has none of it. The stuff made out of PET The plastic recycled that actually ends up looking like felt Has absolutely no VOC's and any odor and you can handle it. It's great stuff. So We're getting into a post Chemical VOC world or you know, at least a post off-gassing smelly world. Thankfully, so that's nice to see Other than that just yeah, read read the package Google it Find what the results are or at least what people are saying who own the product and if you have any questions Obviously reach out to us about specific products absolutely Alrighty T. J. Metzikapo voiceover just wanted to say thanks to Dan and George for helping me with sound issues I'm having from a few weeks back taking your advice and getting the AT for the 2035. Oh Great, okay Problem solved. It's it's an awesome awesome value Microphone it really it really is it's never I have never heard one sound bad. Let's just put it that way It may not be the best mic you can buy but for the price it is an it is an excellent value So I'm glad you found it worked out for you. Yeah, I'm trying to remember what the issue was He sent us some audio and I'm like, you know, you're using a crappy mic. No, it was an AT 2020. That's why oh, yeah Yeah, it's a 2020 USB. No, they are so close in price, but the 2035 is a whole different class Yes, it's about about 40 $50 more for the for the 2035 But he was on the USB version. I think he was on the AT 2020 USB. Yeah, the newest edition might be pretty good I don't remember but the original ones were pretty pretty hissy. Yeah, I think it's time to do a USB mic shootout Oh, it's time for that again. Yeah, I mean on that in years. We haven't done a USB mic shootout I mean, we've done the interface shoot out. We did a what didn't we do a wovell kind of Vegas? We did it. We did a mic shoot out there to be my shoot out in a whisper room. Yeah Well, there were a couple of different mics. We used to few USB mics We used a couple of other ones and but it's been years. It's been like eight years. Yeah Since we did these of things you've evolved. Yeah, so I I think there's some really good USB mics out there You know, there are you know, the epigee mics are all really good And yeah, and people who are like, you know, I want something that's portable. I'm like, well here This is the answer. It'll do everything you want Rhodes doing some interesting stuff They're even that mic right there has USB capabilities. Oh, yes This guy the the video might go to go to this is great. We were actually using this this afternoon with the The Joe Cipriano steady cam Yeah, and it's a great little mic, you know, and it and it works with your iPhone now The only drawback to it is that it requires a very specific USB cable. Yeah. Yeah, it does So, yeah, you have to order that from them doesn't come with I ordered to just in case so with that cable. It's like 130 bucks How much is that cable that cable was? 34 I think there you go. So it's a USB mic for about 135 bucks if you buy the special cable Right anyway, but yeah, it's they're getting more and more affordable and better sounding all the time Oh, Grace Newton says I'm shopping for a double wall whisper room Uncle Roy says I'll have to treat it with OralX and blankets and for the initial price of that whisper room Why isn't it a one-stop shop? Well, that's an excellent question. That is a darn good question One that we've been dealing with for many years. Yeah. Well, that is changing Yeah, because the fact is is that I I People don't get the idea with a lot of these these soundproof booths. They were never Initially designed for voiceover and if they were there were some brands that have that name Voice or vocal, right? They weren't well Acoustically designed for for that job, right, you know, but so the problem is is they they're acoustics aren't that great They keep sound out for the most part Yeah, they they reduce noise but because a lot because a lot of them are our square or rectangular and have 90-degree angles in them They require bass traps. They require Really understanding what needs to make it not sound like you're talking in a tube. Yeah And yeah, you've got you know an uncle Roy is right because we told him Uh If you've yeah, you can use moving blankets in there you can use orlex foam which is you know preferred because As we orlex foam is made to do what it does. It's it's not there to prevent bed sores right, you know, it's a really has a chemical composition that that absorbs and Diffuses sound the best of all all that's not a foam anyway But you can also there also, you know other acoustic panels you can use Yeah, like anything with the rock wool paneling like we were talking like in that interview earlier with Ben who you heard the word rock wool Boy, that stuff is incredibly effective per square foot. It's much better in my opinion than the foam So that's always gonna be my vote like if I was gonna buy an $8,000 whisper room I would say give me all the money back for your foam I'm gonna put my own panels in there and it's gonna sound a lot better now They did just release a vocal they finally actually have Voiceover edition models of their booths about time. So they've been paying attention recently Yeah, and I did hear a sample from one recently and I thought it sounded pretty good I was actually surprised but that's cuz it includes audio mute brand Paneling which isn't foam. It's actually I'm not sure what it's on is on the inside But it's not foam and it actually does a much better job. It's still Your mileage may vary and that's only in a four by four size which I I do not recommend going square Go go rectangle whenever possible. Yeah speaking of which yeah had a deal with the studio bricks last week Uh-huh a big studio a double-size studio bricks. Oh, wow Custom one. Yeah, and it you know any any any an old apartment building in downtown, Los Angeles I mean, I think the place was a hotel at one time, you know concrete floors Yeah, you know concrete furniture. No, not Anyway, it was huge and it had a three-section roof and they could not get the last Section of the roof on so it's like, okay So pull it off it took three of us to get the roof section off and the ring that goes along the top Yeah, yeah, and we're like pushing it in and I'm like, you know, there are hex nuts in here for a reason The whole these sections together Loosen those up pull it apart put pops right into place How about that and then tighten it back up and it was airtight So weren't they glad you came to them? That's what they pay me for Yeah, I ain't driving all the way downtown out to Wilshire Boulevard for nothing Well and straight yeah, every every product like this has to be assembled properly They might make you think that they're super easy but the devils and the details follow the instructions doing the right order and And there's sometimes tricks involved. Yeah, and and the floor wasn't quite long. So they're I mean, I mean it was leveled out Yeah, but there are little tiny gaps where you can might see the dowels and stuff. Yeah, and But it didn't if it didn't you know if you don't see light coming through it It's I have very rarely even if you see a small gap on the outside Not it rarely ever translates to a yeah noise leak. So all right a question from Jeff Holman I'm not sure if we're allowed to discuss this but Well, actually this it's in the video, okay, it's not in the edit you saw but in the full edit right you will You'll be finding that out, but it was definitely north of a hundred thousand. Yeah, how much did it cost to build? Well, that was we don't know that was for the whole ad that was for the whole ad you that was ever kitchen bathroom Yes, you know air conditioning all the things that went into it the booth itself It's kind of hard to say the doors of the alone were like four grand right for that pair of doors So, you know that that was a big part of it the glass But the rest it was just tons of labor and time and you know if it's summoning He said to build to buy a studio break of equivalent size Would have actually from what he thought was going to be more costly than building it so and That might be true for that price for that size range, maybe Depends where you live depends on how much you're paying for labor, but right Yeah, it but it's certainly more soundproof than any studio break could possibly ever pull off because the walls are 10 inches thick inch and a half air gap, right? It is a serious serious a piece of equipment right and and he had it built into the wall It may became part of the structure. Oh, yeah, it looks like it's just all part of the room It's just belongs there, but it's it's separate. Yeah. Yeah, and then there's some of us that Bought a house that had a booth in it. You know it helps someday. I could be so lucky. Yeah, I'll try Alrighty TJ met Sikapo asks you guys said my interference was let a hiss was likely a grounding problem What's the best way to set the cables to avoid this issue? Well a grounding problem Well, the mic you've got The one you're using today in my my it's a it's a k-47. It's the kit mic. Yeah, the kit like that I built you know and you know and turned it on and what holy crap it works That was really something not a very intricate soldering with that. Yeah Some I think the point was is that tube mics and what I mean by tube not because they have a Tube in them but because they are tube shaped, which is why they're called two bikes and Sometimes they can get loose and as long as you tighten things down really tight That makes sure that the The grounding within the microphone because it's all connected through you know the ground wire, which is the number three on the Is number three or number one the ground? I think one is ground to Minus three is plus or something like that, but yeah, it's if that's loose or it's right You will get hissing you will get buzzing But hissing generally is an indication that you're not recording loud enough and you're adding more gain We have a very low output mic like you know or the mic itself is damaged or not functioning correctly So the SM7 B Are you 20 an SM7 V is an amazing mic for being yelled into yeah, right? Right, that's that's what that mic is really really good at which is what jocks do on the radio, right? Joe Rogan does on this podcast and you know Heavy metal singers do in the studio. That's what that mic is good for exactly other than that in terms of other things you can try It's a very long troubleshooting process sometimes because it depends on how much gear you have If you have a very simple setup with a mic a USB interface and a computer that troubleshooting takes a lot less time because There's fewer things to swap out But you essentially have to just swap things out One by one you have to have a duplicate of everything to try and figure out. What is the one thing? That's causing the noise. That's really what it comes down to right That's the process that I go through one by one right you look in my closet. There's a pile of cables hanging there Some of them should probably be thrown away Maybe but they're holding on to other cables making sure that those cables don't get lost. Yeah Thank you. He said he tightened his MT1 mic and it's still hissing. Well, it's not hissing then I would definitely I would definitely reach out to the manufacturer which in that case happens to be road I would Change if you've already changed every other variable and already swapped out every other thing It's probably the mic and that's not a mic known for hissing No NT1 is known for being very quiet very very quiet You know, but it also has although their output is improved lately I think they they improved the output on the end maybe was it was a little lower than other mics Right, I mean you had a really you really had to push the game. Yeah, if you know It depends on the interface does the interface have enough game the preamp and the interface So I think it works fine with like a scarlet. I don't know if I've ever had any trouble. I haven't so yeah Okay BC has a question Based on something we were talking about the SSL to which is an interface Included a vocal strip to plug in an all-in-one Compander de-esser de-plosive and three band EQ Could I use this in a stack for voiceover editions or it does its all-in-one nature? limit me Interesting thought I would if you're gonna put all that stuff in there I would think that they would include some variables Yeah, I mean if they're all just on-off switches, I would be very wary of its usefulness Because an on-off switch processor rarely is a good one unless it's just a simple limiter like what's in the mic port pro Generally, there's a lot of parameters that need to be adjusted now I'm taking a quick Google search because I have not yet Amazingly played with the vocal strip to plug in I I really haven't And it looks like it has potential to be very useful. It's got a neat. It's got a Parametric equalizer. It's got like you said a de-ploser De-esser if you are popping the mic so often you need a plug-in to fix it You need to study your mic technique a little bit because I can go Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers For the next six years and I'm not going to get a plosive and you see no screen here There's no pop screen here either. It's just in the right place, right, right? It's got a compander, which is a weird word for a compressor and expander These are all tools that when used properly by an engineer who knows how to set them and configure them can give you a great result Otherwise, I can use the tools included with any DAW and get pretty much all the same results. So Yeah, it could be good. Maybe one of these days. I'll play with it. I do have a SSL 2 at home So I guess that means I have a license to use this $200 plug-in So I'll give it a shot and see what I can see what I think yeah well guess what another hour of life has gone by but Your voice over tech questions have been answered And enjoyed and and thoroughly enjoyed because as you can see when George and I get questions It makes our day because that's that's what we're all about. Yeah, anyway We're gonna take a quick break here, and we will be back to wrap things up for a couple of weeks right after these messages Yeah, hi, this is Carlos Ellis Rocky the voice of Rocco, and you're watching voiceover body shop Hey there, I'm David H. Lawrence the 17th and with my company VO heroes and my team of coaches and my community of voiceover talent We guide voiceover Actors along their journey, and you may be watching VOBS here And not nearly as far along as many of the other people who are watching you may not even have Started yet, and we actually specialize in helping you do just that so if you're watching all the stuff going on here on VOBS and going I have no idea what they're talking about. I don't know, but I really want to do this I'd really like to help you Please go to VO heroes comm slash start That's a VO heroes comm slash start and you can take our getting started in voiceover class Which tells you everything you need to get started as a voice talent, and I'd love to hold your hand along the way And help you with that journey Again, VO heroes comm slash start. 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Well, uh Next week You know, we're gonna run an interview that we did the longer version of the interview that we did with with Ben earlier in the show so you can hear all of the details of what into went into that construction Which was quite a bit But I'm gonna be gone for a couple of weeks. So we're gonna be gone for a couple of weeks But we're gonna start up again on May 23rd we will be live, but look there are so many episodes that you could possibly be watching if you missed them go find You can watch anything you want even the old ones like from get a laugh Yeah, what's up on the first season 2011 2012 eWabs into YouTube and start to laugh It's it's all there. Anyway, who are our donors this week? Well, we'll start off with Jonathan Grant Christopher Epperson Sarah Borgias Philip Sapir Tom Pinto Shelly Avelino George with him your dad. That's right. Brian Page Patty Gibbons Rob Ryder Greg Thomas a doctor voice Nathan Antland Productions, that's Uncle Roy Shawna Pennington Baird Martha Khan Don Griffith Trey Mosley Diana Bird Saul and Sandra Manwheeler Excellent. All righty. You ever notice how when you do the award shows and they read names. They don't do the Doctor voice George Wittem. They always go George Wittem Dr. Brian Page Why is that? Because it sounds nice and formal. I guess so I guess Anyway, again, if you need help with your home voiceover studio, that's what we're here for you want to work with me go on over to Home voiceover studio.com. She's so sure If you want to work with George you go to George the dot tech and we've got a webinar coming up in May for audacity And we have our tech support over there and a coupon code V OBS fan 2022 which will get you 20% off the next Service to get to use it once it's a pretty big discount But if you book any services on the site you can use that it's for the scheduled Services only all right. Well, we need to thank our sponsors like Harlan Hogan's voiceover essentials voiceover extra source elements VioHeroes.com voice actor websites.com and JMC demos Thanks again to Jeff Holman for a great job in the chat room tonight as always Sumer Lino for doing it from home and still making it look like she's just sitting here with us And we really appreciate that and of course Lee pinny for just simply being Lee pinny He knows what that means and the rest of you are going what? The last seven years what what is this Lee pinny? Well, you've got to come visit us and stick a space in here one of these days Anyway, that's gonna do it for us this week again if you've got a question for us you can write to us at the guys at V OBS dot TV and Will be we'll put we'll put it in the front of the queue You know as opposed to the the people who are calling during the show But you'll be the first one we answer that's right because it's they're an email or anyway Um But that's important. So ask your questions, but we're thrilled to help you out with your home voiceover studio But you know it always amazes me that people are like it's got to sound great It's got to sound it's got to be right, but the bottom line is if it sounds good. It is good I'm Dan Leonard and I'm George Whidham. And this is voiceover body shop or V. O B. S. Tech talk. Tech talk. Tech talk. Tech talk. See you in a couple of weeks everybody. Have a good one. Bonjour